Thanks Stoic Joker. You put out a few facts I didn't understand. I did know that it "...only controls my personal domain with a small number of mailboxes..."

You wrote that "...a full blown Exchange implementation because it would cut too far into what I have available for experimentation. ...," but later you wrote that "It really is amazing how few resources a server OS requires when it isn't having to futz with the hardware." I'm sure you're happy with hMailServer, but I'm wondering hypothetically if Exchange is feasible for you if you ignore the modest (for a few years old setup) cost and curtail or batch erase the logs on a small home setup like this.

That must be one hell of a calendar! cheesy I do believe it is safe to say that Virtualization is by far my favorite technology to play with.

I ended up with the system mostly to have fun with virtualization. I've become addicted to the Calendar since, even though it's just keeping my doctor's appointments and reminding me when to eat my health foods mostly. If something goes wrong I'm going to buy a subscription to Exchange email somewhere. Like you, my setup is strictly for my home network lab, but definitely no MSDN subscriptions connected. Maybe a deploy or two every few years, or a network tool to try, and my WSUS (Windows Updates).

I don't think there is any MS OS that can't be run on Hyper-V - I've got a copy of DOS v6.22...

Wow! I always thought those compatibilities lists at Microsoft were the Tablets of Moses, Volume 3, especially after reading forums on different hurdles after a bunch of searches over the years.

... a list of caveats a mile long with self hosting..., ...your ISP allows it...

I doubt I'd consider a mail server without a static IP, which requires a Business package from my provider. There's at least one way around that with DynDns, but again my novice senses tell me to go with the true static in this case.

The Exchange Transaction Logs are not 'Just logs" in the traditional sense. They have to be committed on a regular basis (like nightly) to avoid data loss. Also the thing to remember about mail servers is that the amount of mail that you expect to get has nothing to do with the amount of mail you will actually get ... ...And that distinction will have a huge effect on the log size. This is one of a multitude of reasons why Exchange tends to require a lot of system resources.

Standard Windows 2012 license is about 6000USD (if memory serves me correctly)Hardware can be modest, from experience I can tell you that it runs adequately on a dual core AMD CPU (2GHz) with only 2GByte of RAM and an old SATA hard disk. I run a trial version of MS-SQL Server 2012 (database has 50GByte content) on that and it doesn't disappoint.

But I wouldn't use any modern version of Exchange on any PC with less than 4GByte of RAM and that is already asking for trouble. Expanding RAM on an older PC can be quite costly and getting a new one with desirable amount of RAM will also make quite some cut in the budget. Exchange does require a big hard disk and the faster it is, the better.

Software that prevents spammers from creating havoc on a Exchange server with port(s) open the interwebs also comes with a price tag.

And all that for a home lab setup? I wouldn't be around anyone Ms. after the appointed Mr. asked for her consent on the purchase of this setup. You know, with MMA fights the opponents are more or less matched. After that Mr. & Ms. "conversation" I don't intend to be remembered as collateral damage...

For home use, Essentials should handle anything you throw at it as long as you don't plan on running a lot of VMs. Essentials allows only one guest OS instance at at time. It does have good integration with Office 365 and 3rd party Exchange hosts however. So your own e-mail setup can be as simple or complicated as you decide to make it. At $4 per month per address for Exchange Online e-mail (hosted by Microsoft) with a 50Gb storage limit per mailbox (or $8/mo for unlimited storage +voicemail) it's a compelling proposition. Especially considering a 5-CAL license for Exchange Server butchers in around $1200.

FWIW, the cheapest way to get Microsoft Server (currently) is usually to buy it bundled with inexpensive server hardware. For example, you can get MS Server Standard for around $435 (or $170 for Essentials) when you buy it with a sub-$1K server from one very well known company. Similar savings can be found for most of the other major hardware brands. That's almost like paying substantially less than the cost of the license alone and getting your server hardware thrown in for free when it comes to the OTC Standard edition.

Honestly, the install footprint for the Exchange software would probably take up more space on the hard drive then my requirements for a mail store would. But as Shades eluded to above Exchange is a memory hungry beast that is just simply overkill for what I'm doing here. And the constant transaction log creation and processing is more wear on the drives that I just don't want to have to allow for.

Sure, I could setup the thing up and run it in my sleep ... But it's simply not cost effective for me to do so.

I am indeed quite impressed with it. It has done everything I have asked of it and more ... And it has done so without - at any point - pissing me off, or requiring me to delve into the bowels of its documentation (those two points are associated..).

I currently use this Email Server at my home-based business for over 10 years now. It has never given any issues or problems.

An easy to use Windows Mail Server. Ability Mail Server is an advanced, secure and high performing mail server. With support for all standard mail protocols, including SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, LDAP and WebMail, the software can meet the needs of almost any business or home user. Ability Mail Server is fully scalable with support for unlimited users and domains, ODBC and clustering. The mail server also includes strong SPAM protection, on-server antivirus scanning, Content Filtering, IPv6 and much more.